It's that time again!!!! Time to give you a run down of all the artist who have excelled in the basketball equivalent of their accomplishments for the year. (Sorry for such a late post)
Both artist have been added to the XXL Freshman cover artist after proving that they are both creative and talented acts that hip hop will love for a long time. Isaiah Rashad caught the attention of many hip hop fans after being signed to TDE, an artist who seemed to fly completely under the radar, even by underground standards took the Internet by storm with his first single “Shot You Down”. This song gave a preview of great things to come as he embodied the southern influence of Tennessee legends with lyrics that were abrasive, competitive, and honest. Isaiah's premiere project under TDE “Cilvia Demo EP” received very positive reviews and resulted in a large boost in his fan base.
Drake is a man of many talents as well as many titles such as...rapper, singer, actor, ambassador, but there is one title he can never shake since is growing presence in Hip Hop and that is SOFT. Since the peak of his career there has been more people who are not afraid to call Drake out on his aim to appeal to his female fans rather than his male listeners. There is also the criticism of his lyrics which make him come across as passive, weak, dependent, and well...soft. Drake has had many obstacles to overcome with his fame and image and one of those in the past was Common, outright calling Drake sweet and “Canada Dry” for the “thug related” lyrics that Drake has gravitated towards. He was later called out from artist after artist not for being one of the biggest names in hip hop, but for embodying those soft traits of his in his music. Artist from Ghostface Killah, Chance the Rapper, Jay Z, and even Katy Perry have spoken on Drake's soft side, and let's just say it wasn't in compliment form. There was even the trend of tweets and jokes that all started as “Drake the type of n*gga” where there is usually a punchline of something only a feminine man or woman would do in a real life situation. As lightly as Drake takes these jokes and comments in interviews his music is starting to say other wise. The beef with Jay Z could be a fine example of Drake finally being tired of the jabs taken at him by others, the remaining problem is he has never gained the comfort to address his competition by name. In his new album “Nothing Was The Same” Drake fires off on “Tuscan Leather” with braggadocios rhymes that would make a critic reconsider his softness, and with singles such as “Started From the Bottom”, “Worst Behavior”, “We Made It”, “0-100”, and “5am in Toronto” the Canadian rapper is proving he is more than a shoulder to cry on for the ladies, but a force to be reckoned with hit, after hit, after hit.
This is
probably the easiest award to give, Dre has been a pioneer in the
game for quite some time, and even when he is inactive there is still
some anticipation for “Detox”. The Aftermath leader has been
behind the success of many artist in the past and recently. Kendrick
Lamar, Slaughterhouse, Yelawolf, Eminem, now XXL Freshman Jon Connor.
Even when he was not personally laying beats on tracks he always had
an executive hand in the production of music, but Dre's success mainly
comes from his work outside of creating sounds. Beats by Dre is
controlling the electronic accessory market with the Beats by Dre
headphones, ear buds, the Beats Pill, and now Beats Music app. All of
these products have seen great success, and caught the attention of
Apple who has now purchased Beats. Needless to say Dr. Dre has had a
huge year in Hip Hop, and plans to have an even bigger impact moving
forward. iPhone 6 with Beats audio anyone?
D-League
MVP: Big KRIT
Bar none
there has been no harder working underground artist than KRIT. Big
KRIT is seen by many listeners and artist alike as one of the most
underrated artist in the game. KRIT not only writes all of his hooks
and produces his own beats, but has grown a strong fan base
without a slew of mainstream artist adding to his work. One thing that is very impressive about this artist is that he makes
music that crosses all aspects of hip hop. KRIT has
the ability to make club bangers, conscious storytelling tracks,
rapid fire punchline rap, and deep songs about relationships. Not
only is Big KRIT capable of all these sub genres or rap, he possesses the ability to do them
well and get people behind him through smart marketing schemes.
#WeekofKRIT was a huge week in music on even a mainstream level.
Websites and Internet radio praised his efforts and fell in love with
the free music in anticipation of his sophomore album. With this
being said...we present to you our D-League MVP.
Rookie of
the Year: Isaiah Rashad & Chance the Rapper
Both artist have been added to the XXL Freshman cover artist after proving that they are both creative and talented acts that hip hop will love for a long time. Isaiah Rashad caught the attention of many hip hop fans after being signed to TDE, an artist who seemed to fly completely under the radar, even by underground standards took the Internet by storm with his first single “Shot You Down”. This song gave a preview of great things to come as he embodied the southern influence of Tennessee legends with lyrics that were abrasive, competitive, and honest. Isaiah's premiere project under TDE “Cilvia Demo EP” received very positive reviews and resulted in a large boost in his fan base.
In
regards to Chance the Rapper he has taken the rap scene by storm with
his ad libs and unique sound. The Chicago rapper caught the world's
attention with his Acid Rap mix tape which launched him to household
status and even gained him a BET Hip Hop Award nomination for “Best
Mixtape”. Chance also gained a lot of notoriety by not being the
typical Chiraq drill rapper. His content ranges from his
experiences with different drugs, to love, loneliness, and missing his
grandma's cocoa butter kisses. His creativity has reached him heights
never foreseen as he has been able to work with James Blake, Lil
Wayne, and has even been referenced in songs by Drake and Jay Z.
Chance has created a sound of hope, fun, and a little bit of strange
in his music which puts you in a drug induced state, while spilling
out is heart and enjoying the success of his rap career.
Sixth Man
of the Year: DJ Mustard and Mike Will Made It
Have you
heard the radio lately? If you have then you definitely have heard a
song or two from these powerhouse producers. California native DJ
Mustard has been around for some time now, but has never made a name
for himself until recently. Remember “Rack City”? That's DJ
Mustard. How about “RIP” by Young Jeezy, “Na Na” by Trey
Songz, “Who Do You Love” and “My N*gga” by YG, ”Headband”
by B.o.B, and “I'm Different” by 2 Chainz...yeah those are all
him too. This year has been very busy for DJ Mustard, but as we can
all see his hard work has paid off with hit after chart topping hit.
There are many leaders of the new school who rap wise who have
created their own sound, but there are few producers who have brought
along a new wave sound like this man. The bay area influenced synths
filled with southern style trunk rattling bass has made a winning
combination for the producer, and the charts show his success.
Our
co-winner for the award this year is none other than Mike Will Made
It, the ATL native first received his taste of fame with the single
“Tupac Back” in 2011 and continued to progress into mainstream
stardom from that point forward. Mike Will finally received his big
break in 2012 by producing notable hits like “Turn on the Lights”,
“Mercy”, “No Lie”, “Bandz A Make Her Dance”, and went
even bigger in 2013 with “Pour it Up” (which sounds extremely
close to the beat for “Bandz”), “Love Me” by Lil Wayne,
“Bugatti” , “Kisses Down Low”, “Body Party”, and even “We
Can't Stop” by Miley Cyrus. Needless to say Mike Will has not only
made himself a common sound on the radio, but has successfully
crossed over to pop and R&B and topped the charts there as well.
DJ Mustard and Mike Will have definitely put themselves in place to
be the leaders of this generation in mainstream hip hop production.
Defensive
Player of the Year: Drake
Drake is a man of many talents as well as many titles such as...rapper, singer, actor, ambassador, but there is one title he can never shake since is growing presence in Hip Hop and that is SOFT. Since the peak of his career there has been more people who are not afraid to call Drake out on his aim to appeal to his female fans rather than his male listeners. There is also the criticism of his lyrics which make him come across as passive, weak, dependent, and well...soft. Drake has had many obstacles to overcome with his fame and image and one of those in the past was Common, outright calling Drake sweet and “Canada Dry” for the “thug related” lyrics that Drake has gravitated towards. He was later called out from artist after artist not for being one of the biggest names in hip hop, but for embodying those soft traits of his in his music. Artist from Ghostface Killah, Chance the Rapper, Jay Z, and even Katy Perry have spoken on Drake's soft side, and let's just say it wasn't in compliment form. There was even the trend of tweets and jokes that all started as “Drake the type of n*gga” where there is usually a punchline of something only a feminine man or woman would do in a real life situation. As lightly as Drake takes these jokes and comments in interviews his music is starting to say other wise. The beef with Jay Z could be a fine example of Drake finally being tired of the jabs taken at him by others, the remaining problem is he has never gained the comfort to address his competition by name. In his new album “Nothing Was The Same” Drake fires off on “Tuscan Leather” with braggadocios rhymes that would make a critic reconsider his softness, and with singles such as “Started From the Bottom”, “Worst Behavior”, “We Made It”, “0-100”, and “5am in Toronto” the Canadian rapper is proving he is more than a shoulder to cry on for the ladies, but a force to be reckoned with hit, after hit, after hit.
Coach of
The Year: Dr. Dre
MVP:
Kanye West
**Honorable
Mention: Kendrick Lamar
(**For Kendrick, the BET cypher, "Control" verse, Beats Pill, and 7 Grammy nominations, along with being the TDE front runner, made him very viable candidate, plus the "classic" status of his album actually stuck and it's kinda official now. Unfortunately, this was not enought to make him the best this year.)
(**For Kendrick, the BET cypher, "Control" verse, Beats Pill, and 7 Grammy nominations, along with being the TDE front runner, made him very viable candidate, plus the "classic" status of his album actually stuck and it's kinda official now. Unfortunately, this was not enought to make him the best this year.)
This
award was the hardest to give out this year, there were many
candidates, but there could only be one winner. I believe most can
agree that through the years Kanye's sanity has come into question,
but his music has always been innovative and enjoyable. Yeezus,
Kanye's latest project, raised many questions, and was definitely an off
putting effort to some, but the album still gained critical acclaim amongst
most magazines and blogs. Though musical success has never been a
stranger to the Chicago native the trends in music has made it much
harder to be creative, lyrical, and innovative while seeing
commercial success, especially when your major marketing tactic is not
releasing a radio single before the album drops. The strange, yet
creative marketing tactics of Kanye inspired many artist to take heed
of the dominance Kanye has in hip hop and also made people more aware
of how strong his fan base is in Kanye's ability to produce great
music. Along with this album came a music video that will never be
forgotten ("Bound 2"), two Grammy nominations, another platinum plaque,
a number one placement amongst Hip Hop performers, and an Adidas
endorsement. Let's not forget about the commercial success of his
artist under GOOD Music as well, 2 Chainz hit the billboard once again, as well as Big
Sean, and Pusha T gained many positive reviews in his solo effort
which was mostly produced by Kanye. Kanye has proven himself as a
force in hip hop no matter if you are a fan off his paparazzi
attacks, concert rants, shoes, or music; Kanye West is always being
his Kanye Best.
NBA
Champions: TDE/Interscope
There has
been no dominance in hip hop like this in quite some time. TDE has
taken over the music scene and is yet to give it back. Kendrick's
debut has be classified as a classic hip hop album, TDE dominated the BET hip hop
cypher and each artist on the label is getting recognition for their own work. New artist Isaiah Rashad received great praise for his
debut “Cilvia Demo EP” and earned himself a place on the XXL Freshman list,
SZA (new R&B artist) released a smooth and innovative album, “Z”,
Schoolboy Q released Oxymoron which received positive reviews and was
filled with radio bangers such as “Break the Bank”, “Collard
Greens”, and even "Studio". Ab-Soul has the much anticipated
“These Days” coming soon, and word around town Jay Rock is up
next with plenty of excitement behind his work after his verse in
“Money Trees”. What makes it even easier to give this group the
reward of champions is their relentless support of each member to
succeed and how spread out their projects are. There are no overlapping albums, there is no focus of one or two artist, there is only a
collective unit that wants the best for each other and the culture of
hip hop.
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